Browns' next owner a '1,000 percent Steelers fan'?

The prospective new owner of the Cleveland Browns has some serious explaining to do about being “1,000 percent a Pittsburgh Steelers fan.” It can be argued, though, that the Tennessee tycoon said so in 2010 simply because it was a smart businessman’s way of talking about the team he needed to provide his NFL education.

Hall of Fame week in Canton is as good a time as any to gather at Art Rooney’s bronze bust and weigh his legacy.

Rooney, enshrined in Canton at roughly the time Pat Shurmur was conceived, picked the Great Depression as the time to launch the Pittsburgh Steelers.

NFL ownership was depressing indeed in the early Steeler decades, but Rooney’s outfit eventually found the light. Since 1970, Pittsburgh owns the best record in the NFL. The team is run by his children and grandchildren. It’s trite but largely true to say the operation never changes.

It hasn’t been like that in Cleveland, where the Browns are on the verge of being purchased by a Steelers minority owner. Part of a sale would include contract language guaranteeing the Browns won’t move again.

Friday turned into a bolt out of the blue day in Berea when Randy Lerner, who became the Browns’ owner when his father Al died in 2002, released a statement that basically translates to this:

There’s plenty to the torrent of reports that Tennessee tycoon Jimmy Haslam III is on the verge of buying the Browns — Forbes magazine puts the franchise’s value at a cool $977 million.

Haslam is no Pennsylvanian. Don’t try to find a picture of him waving a Terrible Towel. He grew up a staunch Dallas Cowboys fan. His thirst to get in the NFL game and an opportunity in Pittsburgh led to his investing in the Steelers in 2008.

Even so ...

If Haslam lands the Browns, he will have some explaining to do about his 2010 quote that made the rounds Friday:

“I am 1,000 percent a Pittsburgh Steelers fan.”

Along those lines, the Steelers have been — what? — 1,000 percent more stable than the team Haslam is angling to buy?

In that corner, the Rooney family, at the helm since 1933 (1964 was the year of Art Rooney’s induction, years before the team became a force).

In this corner, the Browns, too often a mess during Art Modell’s ownership, hijacked to Baltimore after the 1995 season, groping unsuccessfully for a little light since their 1999 revival.

In that corner, Haslam’s current team, the Steelers, with three head coaches in the last 40-plus years, and always those Rooneys.

In this corner, the Browns, who:

• Fired head coaches after the 2000, 2008 and 2010 seasons.

• Had a head coach quit with five games left in 2004.

• Allowed Dwight Clark to hang on for a year after his general managing power was stripped by Butch Davis.

• Seemed to have fired GM Phil Savage after one year on the job, only to can president John Collins instead.

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As a sale to Haslam became more real as the minutes passed Friday, Holmgren conceded he does not know how he might fit into a Haslam-owned team.

“That will be answered probably down the road,” Holmgren said before hitting the field to watch rookies practice. “You control the things you can control and do the best you can. I think we’ve done a lot of great things here in getting to this point, but we will see.”

Holmgren is signed through the 2014 season, armed with strong contract language as to his Browns powers over all things football.

“To me, a contract is a contract,” Holmgren said. “I have said that before and I try to be honest with you about that. We’ll deal with those things as we go down the road. Right now I am the president of the team, and that’s how I am operating.”

At one point during the interview, Holmgren’s cell phone went off, playing a ring tone from a Hootie and the Blowfish song.

“Maybe it’s a done deal,” Browns radio voice Jim Donovan joked as Holmgren pulled his phone from his pocket.

He looked at the caller ID screen and said, “That can wait,” as he put the phone away.

The Hootie song was still playing.

This story of an ownership change is just beginning.

Meanwhile, Haslam brings a fascinating résumé into the cusp of NFL ownership.

He is the son of James Haslam II, who made his fortune by turning a few gas stations into a truck stop/travel center empire now known as Pilot Flying J. Jimmy Haslam, the eldest son of James II, is CEO.

Jimmy Haslam was one of three siblings born to his father and mother, Cynthia (Allen), during the 1950s. The youngest sibling, 54-year-old Bill, was elected governor of Tennessee in 2010.

Their mother died the year Jimmy turned 30. He immediately took her place on Pilot’s board of directors.

The family is heavily involved with the University of Tennessee. Part of that background: James II enrolled there as a 17-year-old scholarship football player in 1948.

An excerpt from the Knoxville News marking James Haslam II’s 80th birthday underscores the fact this is a Tennessee family, not Pittsburgh people:

“For decades, the family and its foundation have helped an armada of local organizations — from glamorous causes like the Knoxville Museum of Art to feet-on-the-street safety-net providers like Knox Area Rescue Ministries — stay afloat in good times and bad.

“Not that the lofty perch was easily achieved. Over the years, the family has been beset by tragedy, assailed by rivals and, occasionally, stung by the criticism of allies, while their fuel-retailing business has earned scrutiny from regulators and drawn legal fire from competitors.

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“Supporters and skeptics alike, though, can agree on one thing: Knoxville and East Tennessee would be far different without them.”

The Knoxville paper also quoted a political rival, Bill Baxter, thusly:

“There's not a family that's had a greater positive impact on Knoxville and, arguably, the state of Tennessee.”

Jimmy Haslam has given up on a dream of owning the NFL team in Tennessee. The one in northeast Ohio is available. The travel-plaza baron has been busy.

By late Friday, stopping the sale of the Browns had taken on the aura of putting a bag of footballs in front of a runaway semi.